Le chroniqueur des questions europ\u00e9enes de Aviation Week & Space Technology<\/em>, Pierre Sparaco, consacre sa chronique (European Perspective<\/em>) du 1er octobre<\/a> \u00e0 une appr\u00e9ciation critique de la politique d’exportation des armements fran\u00e7aises. Son analyse suit les interventions critiques<\/a> du ministre fran\u00e7ais de la d\u00e9fense contre l’avion de combat Rafale<\/em>. Elle rencontre notre appr\u00e9ciation g\u00e9n\u00e9rale<\/a> de cette question des exportations d’armement, et pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment le cas particulier de la France et de son \u00e9trange impuissance dans cette mati\u00e8re o\u00f9 elle fut la premi\u00e8re \u00e0 mettre en place une grande politique avec une composate g\u00e9opolitique.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbHowever, the roots of Rafale’s dismal record in the marketplace lie elsewhere. France still doesn’t acknowledge that exporting state-of-the-art weapon systems involves much more than selling arms. This is not business as usual, it is a geopolitical act. Although Eurofighter is a pan-European company, the Saudi deal is a British success that probably owes more to Tony Blair’s cabinet than to BAE Systems’ sales team. (Although inked in September, the arrangement was completed before Prime Minister George Brown came to power.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbSuch a deal establishes or reinforces durable links between two nations and, in doing so, plays a key role in the buyer’s and seller’s foreign policies. Just keep in mind the true meaning of establishing the Joint Strike Fighter’s international team. It goes well beyond the limits of Lockheed Martin’s capabilities and influence around the world. If needed, another confirmation comes from Japan’s desire to procure F-22 Raptor stealth fighters.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbIronically, France forged a similar, forward-looking armaments export strategy 50 years ago and succeeded in exporting impressive numbers of Mirage fighters. Today, a narrow-minded attitude can’t resist the U.K.’s (and U.S.’s) firm stance. Moreover, Defense Minister Herve Morin has recently criticized the dearth of export orders for the Rafale as additional proof that the government of Prime Minister Francois Fillon still has a lot to learn. However, note that under President Jacques Chirac results were no better.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbFrance’s armaments policy is based on a 30-year plan, last updated in 2005, which lists potential threats in an unpredictable, evolving world. The agenda reviews all forms of potential conflicts, analyzes U.S. dominance and discusses the emergence of so-called peer competitors, though it fails to establish clear, direct links between Defense and the quest for armaments export salesa prerequisite to extended production runs and lower unit costs. France’s defense budget, about $65 billion or 1.7% of the gross national product, includes $22 billion for military procurement.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbLast month, President Nicolas Sarkozy established a high-level working group to draft a new defense white paper. It should contribute to decisions that lead to superior military efficiency, the strengthening of overall security, and help to inform political choices down the road (including, perhaps, fully rejoining NATO). In the shorter term, however, difficulties will pile up when Morin tries to reconcile increasingly tight budget constraints with the need to further modernize the three arms of the military. For example, the long-term commitment to procure 294 Rafales for the air force and navy could be questioned.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbIf Sarkozy, Fillon and Morin don’t use this opportunity to overhaul an armaments export strategy, the exclusion of Rafale will continue unabated.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \tMis en ligne le 9 octbre 2007 \u00e0 06H06<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Le chroniqueur des questions europ\u00e9enes de Aviation Week & Space Technology, Pierre Sparaco, consacre sa chronique (European Perspective) du 1er octobre \u00e0 une appr\u00e9ciation critique de la politique d’exportation des armements fran\u00e7aises. Son analyse suit les interventions critiques du ministre fran\u00e7ais de la d\u00e9fense contre l’avion de combat Rafale. Elle rencontre notre appr\u00e9ciation g\u00e9n\u00e9rale de… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3481,4195,5597,2687,7113,4247],"class_list":["post-69303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloc-notes","tag-armements","tag-aviation","tag-exportation","tag-france","tag-sparaco","tag-week"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}